Contributing to the prevention of tick-borne diseases: Assessing the perceived knowledge of tick-borne diseases among the residents of the transboundary region of the U.S.-Mexico by using an online survey

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Consuelo Aguilar and Mirayda Torres, Biology, UTRGV, Edinburg, TX, Tamer Oraby, Statistics, UTRGV, Edinburg, TX, Teresa Patricia Feria Arroyo, Biology, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX

Background/Question/Methods

Background/Question/Methods
The transboundary region of the U.S. and Mexico possesses similar weather conditions and habitats favoring insect vectors that can transmit pathogens and cause infectious diseases some of them are due to ticks bites. For the past three years, about 40 cases of rickettsial infections have been reported between Tamaulipas, Mexico, and the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, U.S. The low level of knowledge about tick-borne diseases and about protection practices can severely affect human health. Our goal in this study is to (1) assess the self-reported knowledge of ticks and tick-borne diseases among residents in cities of the transboundary region of the U.S.-Mexico and (2) create awareness on how to protect against tick-borne diseases. We hypothesized that a survey would provide data to assess the level of percieved knowledge among residents in the transboundary region of U.S.-Mexico about tick-borne diseases and their protection practices. We predicted that residents have a limited percieved knowledge of ticks and tick-borne disease and the preventive practices. We used IBM SPSS to validate the online survey and the UTRGV Qualtrics platform from October to December 2020 for survey distribution.
Results/Conclusions
Majority of the participants are of 18-24 years of age. Among all the participants, 54.80 % reported knowledge and 45.20 % reported no knowledge that ticks could transmit pathogens to humans.The percentage of reported knowledge had no association with age, chi-square test p-value= .870, whereas the level of education revealed significance association, p-value= 0.019. In addition, when asked about following the CDC recommendations to protect children against tick bites, 63.5% of participants answered that they never tuck-in children’s pants into socks, 54.7% never use tick repellent on their children, chi-square test p-value= .000 and 37% (the highest percentage in this category) never dress the children with light colors to see ticks easily, and 36.2% never check for ticks on the children after returning indoors, chi-square test p-value= .000 revealing significant association between the CDC recommendations and reported knowledge. Residents of the transboundary region have some reported knowledge about tick-borne diseases, but they do not necessarily follow the CDC protection practices to prevent and protect their children and themselves from tick bites. The creation of English and Spanish videos and flyers to prevent tick-borne diseases in the transboundary region of the U.S.-Mexico can be beneficial to prevent tick-borne infections in the future.